The problem is not the chocolate, the problem is the milk

Have you seen it? It's everywhere. I've seen it advertised on mom blogging sites and on television. Chances are you have too. I am talking about the Chocolate Milk marketing and advertising campaign sponsored by the National Dairy Council.

It summarizes many things that are wrong with food advertising. We take something bad and disguise it as something good. Or should I say, we take something that was once good, and pretend it is still made the way it was one hundred years ago. Yes, looking to food for nutrition is the right approach. Better than supplements in my opinion. It really bothers me though that they target clueless moms with quotes from the so called 'experts'. How much do they pay them? Instead of teaching kids proper nutrition and healthy eating habits we are now to mask everything mildly nutritious with a cup of sugar? Maybe high fructose corn syrup? I'm sorry, but even logically this makes no sense. Is this their way of dealing with a childhood obesity epidemic?

The problem though goes deeper than this. It is not Chocolate Milk that is the problem. Even white milk is not innocent. Processed, homogenized, and pasteurized milk is nothing but dead white liquid (or brown if you put fake chocolate in it). Here are some things they will not tell you about conventionally processed milk:

Louis Pasteur, father of pasteurization, was researching ways to kill pathogens in wine, not milk, when he developed his heat treatment process. Pasteur did not experiment with the heat treatment of milk!

Cows are raised on high-protein, soy-based feeds instead of fresh green grass. Instead of free range grazing, they stand in feed lots and manure all day.

Pasteurization transforms the physical structure of the proteins in milk, such as casein, and alters the shape of the amino acid configuration into a foreign protein that your body is not equipped to handle. The process also destroys the friendly bacteria found naturally in milk and drastically reduces the micronutrient and vitamin content.

Breeding methods produce cows with abnormally large pituitary glands (due to the bovine growth hormones) so that they produce three times more milk than normal. These cows need antibiotics to keep them well (to treat mastitis). The antibiotics they are given wind up in the milk you and your family drink.

Pasteurization destroys part of the vitamin C in raw milk, encourages the growth of harmful bacteria, and turns milk’s naturally occurring sugar (lactose) into beta-lactose (rBGH survives pasteurization). Beta-lactose is rapidly absorbed in the human body, with the result that hunger can return quickly after a glass of milk – especially in children.(Chelsea Green, David Gumpert)

If you still think that your grocery store milk comes from cows in pristine green pastures, here is the reality:

“Factory farmed dairy cows are typically kept in indoor stalls or on drylots. A drylot is an outdoor enclosure devoid of grass. Cows raised on drylots usually have no protection from inclement weather, nor are they provided with any bedding or a clean place to rest (see photos).

Drylots can hold thousands of cows at one time. Because these lots are only completely cleaned out once -- or at the most, twice -- a year, the filth just keeps building up. Such conditions are not only extremely stressful for the cows, they also facilitate the spread of disease.” (Humane Society)

Yes, drinking that kind of milk would be deadly without pasteurization. The whole campaign is so typical of bending science and research to benefit profits instead of putting the health of our children first. The milk industry can't afford to take Chocolate Milk out of school cafeterias, it accounts for 54% of their flavored milk sales. Hence the million dollar "Raise your hand for chocolate milk" campaign.

Does it ever dawn on anyone that the alarming obesity rates might have something to do with growth hormones in everything, including the milk given to our kids? It would sure cost a lot of money for the milk industry to clean up their act and raise cows that are healthy enough to drink raw milk from. I drank raw milk, so did my mother, her siblings, my grandparents, and great grand parents. They didn't die from it. Of course profits are at the root of this, raw milk would not possibly keep from spoiling standing at the grocery shelves for two weeks! You've seen the warning about not heating breast milk before, right? It kills the nutrients. Why should cow's milk be any different?

I would rather not drink milk at all than drink chemically altered milk with growth hormones and antibiotics, from sick cows living in unsanitary conditions. No, not even chocolate would make me do that.

Do you have a recommendation on any commercially available "organic" brands of milk? Is there a least bad option?

EcoMamaJanuary 29, 2010

I would stay away from organic milk from Aurora (Horizon Organic, they supply Safeway, Costco, Wal-Mart, Target and Wild Oats). Their cows are fed organic grain but spend very little time grazing. The best option is to find a local organic dairy that has fewer cows, they usually produce much higher quality milk. You could try Abundant Harvest Organics, I think they have milk.

Great review. My wife and I have not drunk milk for years. We drink soy beverage and, if we feel the need to jazz it up with flavour, we add protein powder that has the smallest amount of carbohydrates and fat that we can find. An 8 oz cup of soy beverage with a heaping tablespoonful of good quality protein powder is actually a meal on its own and tastes great in the bargain.

EcoMamaJanuary 24, 2010

Thanks for commenting Paul. I've been drinking Rice Milk since my daughter has been diagnosed with a milk protein allergy a year ago (I breastfeed). I prefer the rice one to soy. I've also read that consuming too much soy can wreak havoc with hormones, but don't take my word for it. :) That sounds like a yummy meal you're describing! My husband just read this review of mine and decided to switch to rice milk himself! He was the only one in the family still drinking milk (organic, though still pasteurized).

It's sad, that this is our reality. It's even more sad that it isn't 'just' the milk. When will the people that matter in the food sector wake up and say: 'hey, we are doing the wrong thing here!'. I guess the only thing that can be done is telling as many people as we can. And if that isn't going to work, I'll buy my own cow for in my backyard. Oh and I wonder.. do those researchers (who are involved in the food process) drink the same milk?

EcoMamaJanuary 24, 2010

Yes, corruption in the food industry pretty much covers everything. Profits over health in meat, veggies, fruits, dairy, everything... I'm thinking of moving out to the country and growing my own food - from veggies to milk... :) Not anytime soon though, maybe when we're desperate.

It's true, we no longer have an idea of what we eat is safe and what is not! I heard the same thing goes for chicken too! They're kept in cramp conditions and injected with hormones to make them fat! Capitalism at its worst!